Doctors on Friday started the medical procedure to abort a 25-week pregnancy of a minor rape victim after Supreme Court intervened in the girl's favour, in what might be a first of its kind case in the Indian medico-legal history.

The Supreme Court, which deals with a number of sensitive cases, found itself in a Catch-22 situation when the father of a 24-week pregnant 14-year-old rape victim filed a petition seeking permission for his daughter to undergo abortion.

A day after the sessions court here allowed Gujarat government to terminate 15-week-old pregnancy of a mentally-challenged woman, a city-based lawyer on Thursday challenged the order before the High Court.

Acknowledging that maternal mortality rate in Odisha is quite higher against national average due to unsafe abortions, the state government has decided to set up more maternal termination of pregnancy centres (MTPs) by 2017.